N’Gai Croai, a videogame writer for Newsweek, posted about Jeff Gerstmann’s firing from Gamespot (allegedly over a bad review for Kane & Lynch: Dead Men that caused Eidos to pull ad money from Gamespot). It’s an interesting piece, though I’m not sure it’s entirely on the money.

Just to throw it out there, I have no personal stake in this matter – I don’t particularly like Jeff Gerstmann (I think he’s not a particularly good reviewer), and though I used to like Gamespot, recently, its quality has really gone downhill.

That said, N’Gai Croal’s position is that publishers hold the enthusiast press (Gamespot, IGN, and their ilk) in contempt, so they can strong-arm them into doing their will (by exerting pressure via advertising $$), where they couldn’t do that to a source they don’t hold in contempt (like Newsweek). Rather, they can’t do that to a site they’re not spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on in advertising.

But the fundamental point is this:

OF COURSE they hold these outlets in contempt.

OF COURSE THEY DO.

Do you think the Bush administration thinks well of the current White House press corps? The “enthusiast media” sites are all so fundamentally corrupted by the ad money they take in that there’s simply no way they’re not obviously under the publishers’ thumbs. They blather on and on about “editorial independence” but come on – it’s obviously bullshit, and has been for years.

These “enthusiast” sites, because they don’t actually do *journalism*, rely entirely on what publishers feed them. They need the publishers to spoon-feed them their content, so when they get anything, they sycophantically praise it in the hopes they’ll get more. Every “exclusive” you see comes with strings attached, spoken or unspoken. Every bad review a highly-anticipated game gets, the less content that review site gets in the next cycle.

These sites are so obviously, so totally corrupt due to their dependence on the publishers both for their ad money and their content that it’s simply impossible to consider any of them even marginally “independent” or “unbiased.” Sure, I read some of them periodically to see what kinds of things people are being told, but do I think for a second that any of them are *honest*?

Don’t make me laugh.

So, let’s get this out of the way first: Rock Band is the greatest in-person multiplayer game ever. That’s all there is to it. Friday, some friends came over and we rocked out. This morning, some friends came over and we rocked out. We’re planning on having a bunch of people over to rock out next weekend. Yes, the initial guitars are buggy, and that sucks. I’ve got two replacements on the way for the two I have, and hopefully they’ll be here before the weekend.

But the game… man. It’s Simon Says for the most part, dressed in crazy Rock suit, but that’s par for the rhythm game course. The guitar stuff works as well or better than Guitar Hero (except for the hardware), the vocals are as good as Karaoke Revolution with a MUCH better songlist… but the drums. The drums are amazing. My sense of rhythm and coordination has improved tremendously over the last few days. This morning, L came over (an actual drummer), and we alternated trying to get through Queens of the Stone Age’s “3’s &7’s” which is RIDICULOUS. It’s really fun to be able to watch the pattern scroll by, figure out where you’re making mistakes, and try to adjust, because when you hit it right, it *feels* right. The music plays properly, it fits in with the other parts of the song and you get this great audio-visual-physical rush of excitement.

Is it music? Not yet, though Tycho of Penny Arcade would argue that it certainly will be eventually. (I’d be inclined to agree, in as much as electronic music is music.) There are already parts of Rock Band that spawn creativity – the drum fills are as real, and as open to creativity as any real electronic drum kit can be. I wish there was actually a “free play” mode where you could just play the four pads & pedal without any other structure.

Awesome, awesome game.

On the other hand, we went to my company’s holiday party tonight. I like the people I work with, and I consider a couple of ’em friends, but I’ve gotta say, large social gatherings aren’t my thing. I just can’t “chat” with people. It doesn’t make sense to me, I’m not comfortable or happy doing it, it doesn’t feel natural, and I just don’t really like it. Chatting with more or less random people is the kind of thing I’d do while trapped at an airport in the middle of a blizzard for 30 hours, towards the 20th hour as I’m dying of cold and boredom. Twice this week we were in situations where “chatting” was all that was expected, and all that could be done.

Bleah. I constantly feel like I’m back in high school whenever I’m stuck at one of these things. Knowing that, I think it’s about time I start declining these sorts of things, rather than accepting the invite and going to something where I’m largely miserable.

So, I don’t have time tonight to do a complete summary of how the vacation went, but there are a few basic things I thought I should mention.

Tulum itself is a small town. It has some ruins, which are a bit of a tourist attraction, but they’re almost a tertiary attraction. The primary attraction in the area is Cancun, the secondary is Playa del Carmen, and the third is the Tulum ruins. This makes Tulum the perfect destination, because they’re prepared to some degree for tourists, which means you can find a reasonable number of fluent or almost-fluent English speakers, there’s a lot of available places to stay, but nothing’s so oversaturated with people that it’s oppressive. Which is *perfect*.

On top of that, the place we stayed (Los Arrecifes) was definitely not the upscale touristy spa sort of thing that a lot of the beachside places were. This was about as bare-bones a place as you could get, which meant that most of the people who were in the area were staying at more creature-comfort-oriented places. Our stretch of the beach, as a result, was almost entirely deserted. Imagine sitting on a beach, or walking in the waves, spending all day in basically paradise and not seeing another soul for miles except your friends. If you’re looking to get away from the craziness for a bit and kick back, this is perfection.

One of the other weird things I found on this trip was that I like tacos. I’ve always been a burrito person, but on this trip, we had a lot of tacos, and I think I finally “get” the little corn tortillas. I’ve always had them with US-sized portions, which has always made the little tortillas a giant pain in the ass – they’re not structurally up to the job of heaving a giant portion of food. But in Mexico, where they actually know how to use the things, the proportion of filling to tortilla is much more appropriate. 7 pesos gets you a carnitas taco, which is about three or four bites of simple pleasure. That’s about 65 cents.

I read a book called “A Voyage for Madmen,” which is the true story of the Golden Globe race – a race where people competed to be the first, or the fastest person to circumnavigate the world by themselves in a yacht without stopping. The story is absolutely incredible, and the book is an excellent, interesting read. I’ve been looking for more in the same vein, and as a result, I’ll probably pick up Deep Water on DVD when it comes out in a couple weeks. Don’t search for Deep Water or the Golden Globe race if you intend to read “A Voyage for Madmen” – just take my word for it and read the book without spoiling things for yourself. A word of warning – don’t look at the pictures in the middle of the book until you’re done with it. The section contains a number of serious spoilers.

I miss Mexico already. Feeling the sand between your toes as the sun beats down on you, but the heat is mitigated by a cool ocean breeze… man. There really is nothing better.

So, we’re back from Tulum. The short version: One of the best weeks of my entire life. Absolutely spectacular.

The longer version will have to wait.

Thanks to everyone who helped take care of Mobius.